


Green With Envy

by LexLemon



Series: I’ll Build a World Around You [12]
Category: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Cliff Booth has a heart, Everyone needs to get on Cliff’s hype man level, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, It’s rated T because of the heavy subject matter, Me? Acknowledging Francesca for once?, Rick and Cliff are still friends with Francesca, Rick and Cliff are trying their best, Rick is insecure but what else is new, Tracy has only child syndrome, Tracy’s a tad possessive over her family, difficult conversations, it’s more likely than you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:09:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28823487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LexLemon/pseuds/LexLemon
Summary: Tracy already didn’t like that Francesca had another kid. But when her annual visit begins with another pregnancy reveal, the truth begins to come out.{Sort-of sequel to It’s My Mother (And I’ll Cry If I Want To}
Relationships: Cliff Booth & Original Female Character(s), Cliff Booth/Rick Dalton, Francesca Capucci & Original Female Character(s), Francesca Capucci/Rick Dalton (previous), Rick Dalton & Original Female Character(s)
Series: I’ll Build a World Around You [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852639
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	Green With Envy

**Author's Note:**

> So as I said in the summary, this is somewhat a sequel to my previous fic, It’s My Mother (And I’ll Cry If I Want To). It’s highly recommended that you read that before this one because the beginning note has the context for this story. But if you’ve already read that, then let’s get started with this one! :)

_“I can still recall_

_Our last summer._

_I still see it all._ ”

Tracy Dalton hummed the ABBA song to herself as she rocked back and forth on her feet, her eyes looking down at the linoleum floor of LAX. She was doing her best to keep herself busy as she waited in the airport with her fathers, but a nine-year-old's patience could only hold for so long.

She looked up for a moment at the sea of people walking past her, some dragging suitcases behind them while others didn't even meet her eye. Tracy looked at every face in the room, but none of them was the one she was looking for. Defeated, she slumped her shoulders with a sigh before turning to look up at her father.

"Do you see her yet?"

"N-No, not yet," Rick Dalton said as he squeezed her hand. "G-Give her time, Tracy. Her p-p-p-plane probably j-just landed."

"But I want to see her!" Tracy gave Rick's arm a slight tug. "I haven't seen her since last summer. That's a _whole_ _year_ of not seeing Mom. I got to catch her up on...on everything! And I want to do so much with her for the whole week. Just me and her."

"And you w-w-w-will when she gets here."

"Oh, here she comes," Cliff Booth said, waving his arm over his head.

Tracy followed his gaze and gasped when she saw the familiar head of brown hair walking towards them. Francesca Capucci's shining face stood out among the rest, as she wore a smile as bright as the California sun. Her skin was also a dark olive color, making her look much more sun-kissed than everyone else in the airport.

Her smile seemed to stretch wider once she caught sight of the others, leading her to walk much more quickly. Much to Rick's chagrin, Tracy broke free from his grip when she caught her eye and ran towards her at top speed.

"Mom!" she yelled for all of LAX to hear. She threw her arms around Francesca and collided into her stomach, finding it to be much harder and rounder than she remembered.

Francesca quickly pried her off with a wince, saying, "Oh, gentle, Tracy. Gentle." She took Tracy's hands and squeezed them as she met her eye, her grin returning to her face once more. She bent down to her level and wrapped her in a hug, squeezing her as tight as she could.

"Oh, hello, _bambina_. I missed you so much." Francesca pulled her away and began to stand back up, keeping Tracy's hands in hers. "Look at how big you are now! You grew since last year, no?"

"Uh huh. I grew a ton. Like, five whole inches!"

"Wow, that is wonderful!" Francesca hummed as she ruffled her hair. "I bet you will be as tall as me one day." She then looked over to see Rick coming over to her, leading her to hug him as well.

"Hey, Francesca. G-Good to see you," he said.

"Hello, Rick."

The hug was a brief one, as Rick noticed the same thing about her stomach that Tracy had. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked down at her orange dress with furrowed brows. Sure enough, her stomach poked through the middle in a way that said it was about four to five months pregnant.

Looking up at her with wide eyes, Rick said to Francesca, "No."

Francesca's eyes grew misty as she covered her mouth and nodded. "Surprise!"

"Oh my god! Congratulations, honey." Rick cupped the back of her head to give her a peck on the cheek, making Francesca giggle.

"Thank you. I wanted it to be a surprise, so that is why I did not tell you sooner."

"Aw, it's a great surprise. Say, wh-when are you due?"

"December."

"Aw, that's great." Rick then looked back and waved Cliff over, saying, "Cliff, come 'ere."

Cliff began to walk over to the others and let out a laugh when he saw Rick gesture to Francesca. Picking up on it instantly, he took her in his arms and said, "Hey, look at you! I didn't know you were bringing a guest this week. Congratulations."

"Thank you."

Rick saw Tracy watching them from afar and turned everyone to face her so she could share in the news as well.

"Tracy darlin', c-c-come here. M-Mama's got somethin' t-t-to tell you."

Tracy walked over to them and kept her eyes on her mother as she heard her say, "Guess what, _bambina_? I'm having another baby!"

If a person was looking for it, that moment was when they would have seen Tracy's heart shatter from within.

"You're having _another_ baby?" she asked with a hint of both disappointment and disgust.

Francesca nodded with a beaming grin, her hair bouncing with each move. "Yes! You and Juliet both get to be big sisters now!"

Tracy's smile faded by the second until her lips puckered into a pout. With a tone that was definitely disappointed, she quietly said, "Oh."

"Tracy!" Cliff said sharply, his eyebrows furrowing his face into a quick glare.

Tracy's body shivered at how harsh her name sounded when he said it, instantly realizing that what she said wasn't okay. Recovering, she attempted to smile as she said, "I-I mean, o-oh! That's great, Mom. Congrats." She looked down at her feet and twisted them on the floor, quirking her lip with each shift of her foot.

The adults exchanged an awkward look between one another, each one dreading an impending silence between them. Luckily, Cliff knew just what to say to distract them.

"Hey, I'm going to head over to the carousel to get your bags. You mind coming with me so I know what to look for?"

"Oh, yes! I completely forgot," Francesca said as she walked off with him.

Rick waved to Tracy as he followed their lead, and she began to walk at a distance from the others. With each step of her feet, she felt her heart sink a little lower in her chest.

~

The week had gone by in a flash, but it was filled with lasting memories for Tracy and Francesca. From visits to the beach to grabbing some ice cream, the girls were able to catch each other up on everything they missed in the past year. But the day arrived where Francesca had to go back to Italy, so the family took her back to the airport and was sent off with several sweet kisses.

That night, Rick went into Tracy's room to tuck her in only to find her already sitting up in anticipation. He went over to sit beside her and wrapped his arm around her, asking, "All ready?"

"Yup."

"Did y-y-you have a good w-w-week with Mama, Tracy?"

"Yeah! I had so much fun. And now we have next year too! I bet I'll have even more to talk about with her when she's here next year."

"Oh, y-y-y-you bet you will." Rick leaned in to kiss her head and pat her back as he stood up, adding, "Good night, honey pie."

"Good night, Dad."

Rick turned around to leave the room but stopped when he heard Tracy's voice again.

"Hey, Dad?"

"Yeah, darlin'?"

"Why can I only see Mom for one week every year? Why can't she come for more?"

Rick pressed his lips together and let out a deep breath. He hoped this day would never have to come. The conversation of where her mom was that they had a few years back had been hard enough, but the why of the arrangement was one he wasn't ready to tell her yet. That was Tracy for him, though. She always made him do things much sooner than he planned to.

Moving back to the bed to sit down again, Rick wrapped his arm around her and gave her a soft gaze. "Well, f-f-for one thing, she lives r-r-r-real far away. Remember wh-wh-when I showed you wh-where Italy was?"

Tracy nodded, clutching her blanket to her chest.

"Right, so you kn-kn-know that it's real far. And wh-wh-when you want to go to s-somewhere that far, y-you need a lot m-m-more money than usual. And some p-p-people don't got that k-kind of money every d-d-day of the year. M-Mama's one of 'em. So sh-sh-she saves up every y-year for the one w-w-week that she can c-come see you. Now that's one reason."

Rick took a deep breath before entering the part of the conversation he knew she wouldn't like.

"Th-Th-The other is that M-M-Mama's got a whole 'n-n-nother family in Italy. Sh-She's got Stefano and l-l-little Juliet. And now, sh-she's havin' a new b-baby too. She can't j-j-just leave 'em for a real long time. Sh-She's got to h-h-help take care of 'em. She's their mama too. Y-Y-You understand?"

Tracy made a slow nod, but her eyes were scrunched up tight while she did. Looking away from him, she felt her face grow red and her chest suck in as she spoke.

"But it's not fair!"

Rick kept his eyes on her as he squeezed her shoulder, concern settling in. "What ain't fair, Tracy?"

Tracy's face scrunched up again as she fell into his chest, tears finally coming down on her face. "It's not fair that Juliet and the baby get to have Mom for the whole year but I only get her for a week! I had her first, but they always get her more than me! I never get her! She's always goes back to them! And it's not fair! It's not fair."

Rick had been a witness to Tracy's tears for her entire life. They couldn't be helped when she was a baby, and they only seemed to come out when she got herself too nervous or was scared as she got older. They never came out when she was upset or angry. But here she was, sobbing her eyes out and angry at the world. And they were the most pitiful tears he'd ever heard her make.

As he squeezed her to his chest and heard her repeated cries of how unfair it was, Rick felt like the absolute worst father in the world. He suddenly regretted everything that had led to this moment. Letting Francesca move back to Italy after the divorce, convincing her to give him full custody of Tracy when she told him she was pregnant, answering honestly when five-year-old Tracy asked him why she didn't have a mom like the other kids. If he could take it all back and start over, he would. But Rick had made his bed. Now, he had to lay in it with Tracy crying there too.

It wasn't long before her tears attracted Cliff, as his panicked eyes stared at Rick as he entered the room.

"What happened?" he asked.

Rick turned to look at him with misty eyes, unable to say a word through his pain. Those puppy dog eyes were enough of a plea for help to get through to Cliff, though. Rick was at his breaking point, and he needed him to step in.

Cliff went around to the other side of the bed and sat beside them, placing his hand on Tracy's back. "Tracy?" he asked in a quiet voice. "Honey, it's Pop."

Tracy slightly turned her head to look at him, her eyes still red from crying.

"What's the matter?"

"It's not fair!"

"What's not fair, baby?"

"It's not fair that Juliet and the baby always get Mom when I only get her for a week then never see her again! I want her here so I can see her whenever I want! But she's gone and it's not fair!"

Cliff almost started crying himself from her words, prompting him to move closer to her. Luckily, he knew just what he needed to tell her.

Looking up at Rick, Cliff gestured to the door with his head and mouthed, "Go. I got this."

Rick gave him a brief nod then let go of his daughter, briskly leaving her room as his own tears began to fall.

Cliff wrapped his arms around Tracy and rested with her against the headboard of her bed, letting her sit in the crook of his arm. Running his fingers through her hair now and then, he kept his voice soft as he told her his own version of her story.

"Tracy, I know _exactly_ how you feel."

Tracy sniffled, her crying beginning to stop. "You do?"

"Believe it or not, I do. Do you..." Cliff took a deep breath. Even if he had moved on from the issue years ago, it still hurt to talk about it sometimes as his reality. "Do you remember how I told you that I didn't have a dad when I was little?"

Tracy nodded with an affirmative hum.

"Yeah. I mean, I did for a while, but then I didn't. And I never got another one. Not even when I was older. It was always me and my mom. And I loved my mom more than anything. She was the best mom in the whole world. But sometimes, I would see other kids with their dads at the park or tossing a football with each other on their front lawns...and I'd feel really left out. I'd see all those kids, and it made me want to have my dad back more than anything. I just wanted to feel like a normal kid who had a mom and a dad. But I couldn't have that no matter how hard I wanted it."

"So what did you do?" Tracy asked in a small voice, turning her head up to look at him.

Cliff pressed her tighter to her and started to smile. "Well, as I got older and started to feel like this, I started thinking about all the people I already had in my life that were like a dad to me. They weren't my real dad, but they felt more like a dad than my real one did. Like...there was this guy in my neighborhood when I was little who owned a big garage. That was his job. People would bring in their broken cars, and he would fix them good as new. His name was Pop too."

Cliff ran his fingers over Tracy's stomach, making her giggle into his side. He added, "And every day after school, I would go to Pop's Garage and stay there until the sun went down. I'd watch him work on all the cars, and once I was older, he let me get a job with him so I could do it too. He taught me how to drive, he helped me figure out what to do whenever I got into trouble, and he always let me hang out with him. So as I got older, I realized that even though I didn't have a real dad back home, I had Pop. And he was the closest thing I had to a real dad. Do you get what I mean?"

Tracy nodded with a soft smile. "Yeah, I get it. He made you feel like he was your dad even though he really wasn't."

"Right. And I bet you have a lot of people that you see all year round that are like a mom to you."

Tracy thought it over for a moment, her lips scrunched together as she tilted her head. She soon turned back to him and asked, "Like Miss Sharon?"

"Yeah! Exactly. Like Miss Sharon. She acts like Mom does with you, right?"

"Well, yeah. She lets me talk about my day at school and she plays with me and she gives really good hugs."

Cliff let out a chuckle. "That sounds like a mom to me. So even though Mom has her other family back in Italy she goes back to, you still have a bunch of people right on your own street who love you more than _anything_. And I never want you to forget that, okay?"

Tracy nodded as she wiped at her eyes. "Okay."

"And another thing. While Mom makes this time to see you every year, she still loves her other family just as much as she loves you. So maybe you can be a little nicer when she wants to talk about Juliet and the baby because it really hurts her feelings when you don't want to hear her talk about them. Okay?"

Tracy looked down at her lap, looking less than pleased by this request. Still, she knew he wouldn't leave if she didn't say yes.

With a reluctant nod, she said, "Okay."

"Alright." Cliff kissed her head and moved down to look into her eyes. "I love you, Tracy."

"Love you too."

"Get some sleep."

Cliff kissed her head one more time then moved off the bed, making his way to the door so he could turn off the light and shut the door. Letting out a deep breath, he made his way into the room he shared with Rick to find his boyfriend's back against the wall and his head in his hands.

Standing before him, Cliff opened his arms and said, "Come here, partner."

Rick practically threw himself into Cliff and let his own tears fall onto his shoulder, his arms squeezing him with all his might.

"God dammit, Cliff. I'm the worst goddamn father. I know it. I fucked up."

"No, you didn't."

"All that little girl ever wanted was a mama, and I took that away from her 'fore she was even fuckin' born."

"Hey. No, you didn't." Cliff gave Rick a gentle kiss on the cheek. "You did what you had to do. You did what you _could_ do. It was the only option you guys had at the time, and you both wanted it. Rick, it's okay. Really. It...It's hard, but you had to do it. It's okay, partner."

Even if Rick did feel a little better from his words, he still pressed Cliff closer to him and cried harder into his shoulder. Cliff pat him on the back a few times and kept him with him for the rest of the night, letting him be his literal shoulder to cry on for as long as he needed.

And while the members of the Dalton-Booth household couldn't get everything they wanted that night, there was one thing that they did have. They had each other, and they knew deep in their hearts that they always would.

**Author's Note:**

> Songs Referenced:
> 
> “Our Last Summer”-ABBA: https://youtu.be/82vCV417eN8
> 
> Also, in case you’re curious, Francesca ends up having twin boys. I know one of their names is Paolo, but I don’t have a name for the other one yet.


End file.
